Bumboats and Bayfront's Best

Merlion looks out at the Bayfront Sands Hotel.

On Saturday, the 19th, we visited one more furnished apartment then took a cab to Merlion Park on the harbor front. The merlion fountain statue, symbol of this city, was just as impressive in person as all the photos I had seen, but of course I had to shoot a dozen more. It was disappointing that the fountain was not flowing that day.

Bumboat dock where we boarded.

This would be our last day to play tourist as a family. Aron would be flying home to Papua on Easter Sunday to return to work leaving us three girls to manage and explore the Lion City on our own. The best thing we did that day was to tour the harbor and Singapore River on a bumboat, a traditional watercraft that nearly went extinct until the tourist industry rescued them. The origin of the name is disputed. Some say the merchant traders were the "bums," but the more accepted explanation has it that the term was descriptive of the hull bottom.

Bumboat eye wards off evil.

Whatever the origin, they are ideally suited for transporting 20 or so tourists around these waters. All these boats have been fitted with quiet, energy efficient, environmentally friendly electric motors, one of the many ways Singapore shows its respect and modernity.
The bumboat tour was a great way to see how the city has preserved and repurposed its colonial era architecture and made an attractive riverfront for shops, restaurants, hotels, arts and historic sites nestled against towering skyscrapers of finance and industry. I hope we can explore more of this area on foot.

Once a seedy district of brothels and opium dens, now refurbished for tourists.

Singapore has been aggressively converting water into land to the point that the harbor is no longer a functioning harbor for sea vessels. The shipping docks are located away from the city center, which preserves its pristine beauty for showcasing its architecture and tourism. This city waterfront has few contenders more beautiful in its sleek, sophisticated style.

Merlion is dwarfed by behemoths of stone and glass.

We exited our bumboat at a dock near the Bay Front Sands Hotel. That's the trio of towers with the "surfboard" on top connecting them! There's a public observation deck , but we chose not to go there. The hotel features a pool on the surfboard and you can barely make out the tops of palm trees to give you an idea of the massive scale of this structure.

The Shops At Bayfront.

In between the hotel and waterfront is an undulating roof underneath which is a massive three tiered shopping mall with every high end retailer imaginable, restaurants, an ice rink and waterway with boat rides a la Venice. It's quite a lot to take in. We walked the length of this shopping mecca and found a modest Mediterranean falafel sandwich shop for a late lunch. (I'm always happy to find eateries besides Asian fare.)

The Art and Science Museum.

Outside the Pita Pan across a courtyard was the much smaller, but equally unique architecture of the Art and Science Museum. It has no permanent displays, but an ongoing calendar of visiting exhibits. Sofie immediately fixated on the dinosaur sculptures outside promoting the Dawn to Extinction exhibit inside. I promised Sofie we would come back another day to see the dinosaurs.

Mumu risks her hand to show Sofie the dinosaur won't bite.

That ended our outing for the day and we took a taxi back to the Oasia Hotel for our last night. Sunday, we checked out and went back down the hill to the Value Hotel now in one tiny room with two single beds, where we girls are staying in close quarters for a week (while Aron works on financing a better living arrangement for us). We had one last Chinese meal together before saying farewell to Aron likely until mid June when Blossom Clover is due. Thus ends this chapter and begins a new one.

Bye-bye Daddy Aron!